To: Biblical Languages <biblical-languages AT lists.ibiblio.org>, Biblical Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Cc:
Subject: [b-hebrew] Hebrew with Aramaic, Phoenician etc in scholarly publications
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2003 02:40:25 -0700
I wonder if anyone on either of these lists can help me with a question
that has come up on the Unicode list
(http://www.unicode.org/mail-arch/). Outline proposals have been made to
define Unicode encodings for Aramaic (based on Palmyrene letter shapes
and presumably intended for inscriptional rather than biblical Aramaic),
Phoenician (to include paleo-Hebrew), Samaritan, and a few other ancient
Semitic scripts - see links from
http://www.unicode.org/roadmaps/index.html. I have questioned whether
these scripts need to be considered as separate from the Hebrew script,
which is actually based closely on the Aramaic square script. The lists
of letter names (consonants only) are identical (or very nearly so), and
the letter shapes are not necessarily more different than modern
cursive Hebrew is from the standard prototypical Hebrew letter shapes.
One of the criteria for whether a new script is justified for an ancient
language (which was decisive in the recent decision to encode Coptic as
a separate script from Greek) is whether both scripts are used in
scholarly publications with distinct appearances. Thus, presumably,
there are publications in which both Greek and Coptic are quoted and
distinct scripts are used.
So, my question at last is: Are there scholarly publications (more
recent than BDB!) which quote inscriptional Aramaic, Phoenician,
Samaritan, paleo-Hebrew etc as well as Hebrew? In such cases, what
scripts are used for Aramaic, Phoenician etc? BDB (1906) quoted these
and even south Arabian inscriptions in Hebrew script. But what is the
modern practice? Are ancient alphabets (other than Hebrew, Arabic,
Syriac etc which are in modern use) ever used in such publications? Are
these languages ever transcribed in Hebrew script, or only in Latin
script transliteration? I am interested in practice in Israeli journals
in modern Hebrew as well as in journals in western languages.